Promised
by mini princess93
Summary: TxG "If he didn't tell her soon, he was going to explode." Troy throws Gabriella a surprise party for her birthday but he has something he needs to get off his chest. One-shot.


**A/N: This is your basic, super fluffy one shot that got stuck in my head. Sorry I haven't updated Just So You Know in forever but I've kinda lost my steam for that one. I'm working on like 5 different stories right now but I'm not even sure if I'm going to post any of them. It's more just entertainment when my internet connection is being mean to me.**

**Listening to- Won't Stop- OneRepublic**

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Promised

**By: **Mini princess93

_Flashback:_

"_But Troyyy, you promised!" A 5 year old Gabriella whined to her best friend, Troy. They had practically known each other since birth and had been inseparable since they could crawl._

"_I know. I'm sorry Brie." Troy said, looking very apologetic indeed._

"_You promised," she repeated, stamping her foot. "You promised that you would give me your cookie today because you didn't come to my house yesterday."_

"_I know. But Chad took my cookie." He explained, pointing across the playground to a little boy with a huge curly afro. He had one cookie stuffed in his mouth and there was another one clutched in his little hand._

"_But why? Did he know that that's supposed to be my cookie?" Gabriella asked, crossing her arms._

"_He wanted another cookie," Troy shrugged. "Chad doesn't like to listen very much."_

_Gabriella stomped across the playground until she was in front of Chad who was still happily munching on his snack. "Give it back to me," she demanded, one hand planted firmly on her hip and the other one was held out, palm upward, clearly to retrieve her stolen property._

"_I didn't take anything from you." Chad argued._

"_Give me back my cookie," her lower lip trembled, like she was on the verge of tears._

"_This was Troy's cookie." Chad reminded her._

"_But he was going to give it to me. He promised he would." Gabriella exclaimed._

"_Fine." Chad took the cookie he hadn't eaten yet and licked the entire bottom of it. Gabriella watched in horror as he placed it on her hand._

_Gabriella dropped the cookie and immediately started shrieking. "EW ew ew ew!" she screamed, jumping up and down. She shook her hand over and over again as if to shake off the Chad cooties that had surely been on the cookie with his yucky spit._

_Chad was standing off to the side, grinning. This was the reaction he had been hoping for. His only regret was…he looked at the sad cookie laying on the ground…he was just where he started before he stole Troy's cookie._

_Chad looked up to see Gabriella running to the teacher, still desperately trying to rid herself of Chad's germs. Uh-oh, he wasn't where he started, he was worse off. Now he was going to get in trouble._

_Sure enough, Mrs. Porter came over, her normally pleasant face was unusually stern and Chad gulped. Where had this bright idea come from? Oh right, he thought as his stomach rumbled, his hunger._

_Behind Mrs. Porter, Troy held up a hand for a hi-five from Gabriella. She was about to, then she looked at her hand, made a face and shook her head._

_End Flashback_

_--_

"But Troyyy, you promised" A 17 year old Gabriella complained to her best friend, Troy.

"I know. I'm sorry Brie." Troy said.

"Troy, you promised that you would spend my entire birthday with me." She reminded him, "It's only 6:30 and you're taking me home." Gabriella rolled her eyes. "My birthday isn't over for another 5 ½ hours."

"I know," Troy repeated tiredly. "But I made plans before I remembered it was your birthday but by the time I remembered, it was too late."

"Well excuse me Mr. Troy Bolton. You don't see me forgetting your birthday." Gabriella's accusatory tone was hard to miss. She cross her arms over her chest and pouted just as a show of how disappointed she was in him. "That just shows how important I am to you. You are the worst best friend ever. Who do you have plans with?"

"Uh, Tracey Richmond." He told her, nonchalantly. "Hey look, we're already at your house."

Gabriella looked angrily at Troy before she unbuckled her seat belt and got out of the car and slammed the door shut. "Well, guess what? On your birthday, I'm going to go out with the most popular boy in the school." She threatened. She made it about halfway up the walkway before she turned around and stomped back to the car and stuck her head through the open window. "And that would sound a whole lot more threatening if you weren't the most popular boy at our school but you get the point." she whirled around once more, away from Troy. Behind her, Troy was stifling his laughter in case she decided to turn around again.

"Have fun with Tracey," she called bitterly over her shoulder.

When Gabriella opened her door, she literally did a jump of surprise when all of her family and friends, excluding Troy, jumped up from behind various pieces of furniture in her living room.

"SURPRISE!"

"Oh my god." She whispered slowly. "Oh my god, oh my god," she squealed, running up and giving her friends a huge group hug. "I can't believe you guys did this."

"It wasn't us." Chad informed her. When Gabriella looked at him questioningly, he jerked his chin to imply that she should look behind her.

Before she could, a pair of hands attacked her sides and she doubled over with laughter. She finally gained her composure and saw the guilty party.

Troy was standing behind Gabriella with a mischievous smile on his face. Without even saying anything, Gabriella tackled him into a tight bear hug. Troy stumbled back a half-step but wrapped his arms around her torso nonetheless.

"You did this?" she asked in a whisper, still wrapped up in his arms. She felt him nod against her neck but she couldn't see him.

"Come on Gabs," Taylor called, causing the pair of break apart, but one of Troy's arms remained on her waist. "The party is outside."

Gabriella giggled and nodded. She allowed Troy to lead her outside with a hand on the small of her back.

"You are the best best friend ever," she told him despite what she had called him earlier. "I'm serious, you deserve a gold medal or something."

"I'm sure you will get right on that." Troy joked.

"Of course."

Troy laughed and handed Gabriella a cup full of coke which she gratefully took a sip of. "So what happened with your date with Tracey?" Gabriella asked with her eyebrows raised.

"I lied." He said simply, shrugging. "You know you're more important than any other girls Brie." Troy told her, gently nudging her arm.

"Thank you," she said, giving Troy a chaste peck on the cheek. "And for the record, I am still hanging out with the most popular guy in school on your birthday. If it just so happens to be you, well I can't help that." She quipped cheekily.

Troy grinned at her but his insides were steadily growing more and more nervous. If he didn't say it soon, he was going to explode. He just hoped he wouldn't ruin what they had spent almost their entire lives building up.

_--_

"Why doesn't he just tell her already?" Taylor asked exasperatedly as she, Chad, Sharpay watched the best friend duo interact.

"This is Troy's we're talking about," Chad reminded them. "He's been in denial since 6th grade."

"But how can he not see that she so clearly likes him back?" Sharpay shook her head. "I mean, they only flirt every second together which is basically all the time."

"Please," Taylor scoffed. "That boy is so oblivious, he would notice if Gabriella ran up to him naked, screaming I'm in love with Troy Bolton." She rolled her eyes at Troy's blatant 'boy disease'.

"Well," Chad paused. "He would probably notice if she were naked." He reasoned, grinning childishly. And for that, he earned a light slap to the chest, courtesy of Taylor.

"Shut up," she reprimanded him playfully. "Troy, just say something already," she hissed at the clueless blue eyed boy standing about 15 feet from her even though she was fully aware he couldn't hear her.

_--_

Gabriella had broken off from Troy to go mingle with the rest of party, leaving Troy with his thoughts.

Troy couldn't honestly say he could remember ever feeling this way about a girl, but then again, he was only 17. Everybody at school expected Troy to fall for the generic supermodel type, the Tracey Richmond type who was so different from Gabriella it was surprising that they were even the same species. To Troy, Gabriella was billions of times prettier, smarter, funnier and a whole collection of other flattering adjectives, than any other girl at school with almost no effort. It was a simple kind of flawlessness that floored Troy nearly every day. Girls like Tracey couldn't even hold a candle to Gabriella.

And here he was, evaluating his feeling for Gabriella like a lovesick girl but he truly was lovesick. God, he laughed, if he had seen any other guy acting this way over a some girl, he probably would have beat the crap out of him. But Gabriella wasn't just 'some girl'. She was his Brie and that by itself was worlds better then anything else.

She was one of the few people who had really cared about Troy before he became the Wildcat superstar. Most everybody at school who viewed him as some kind of idol only saw the Troy that he allowed them to see and he preferred it that way. It always frightened him on some level, that if he let them see him, flaws and all, they wouldn't like what they saw but that's wasn't the case with Gabriella. He had let her in before he needed a façade and she immediately felt right at home. She didn't put up with any of his bullshit, which he appreciated and she kept him grounded. Anytime she saw his head overinflating because of the attention he received on the basketball team, she was right there to puncture it and remind him exactly who he was.

He couldn't pinpoint the exact moment when he had fallen head-over-heels for his best friend. He suspected it had been there all along but it was the realization process that had developed gradually. The first conscious memory he had of seeing Gabriella and felt the urge to just kiss her senseless was during their freshman year but it was possible that there were times before that that he had just blocked from his mind. And try as he might, he couldn't make the feelings go away. He found himself looking for any excuse to talk to Gabriella, any excuse at all to touch her and just be near her. His feelings had finally reached a boiling point so now he was planning the best way to tell her without breaking either of their hearts.

Because every ounce of him was terrified that when he confessed, she would laugh it off as a not so entertaining joke. Or worse, she would tell him in her sweetest voice that she didn't feel the same way and then their supposedly indestructible friendship would become unbearably awkward. If he fucked up and screwed up their relationship then he wasn't sure if he would be able to live with himself.

Troy looked up from his own personal pity party to see Gabriella holding hands with Cassie, her 6 year old sister and twisting her hips in time to the music that was blaring over the stereo system Troy had rented for the night. Gabriella and Cassie kept on turning around under a bridge of their arms and laughing because the simple move proved a little more difficult then expected due to the extreme height difference.

He sighed, if he didn't say it now, he would never get up the courage to try again. He walked over to Gabriella and politely tapped her on the shoulder. She turned her head, her lips still in the smile she was wearing for Cassie. "Hey Troy," she let go of one of Cassie's hands. "What's up?"

"Um," he coughed, clearing his throat. "Can we..talk?" Gabriella raised her eyebrows, probably wondering why he was acting so strangely. "Somewhere more," he swallowed. This was not going to be easy. "private?"

"Uh, sure." Gabriella nodded. "I'll be right back Cassie," she said to the little girl sweetly. She then latched onto Troy's wrist and led him inside the deserted house. Despite everything else, Troy felt the sparks that shot up his arm that he had grown accustomed to whenever Gabriella had touched him. He couldn't help but wonder if she felt them too.

If she did, she wasn't showing it. She dragged Troy to the living room, dropped his arm and looked at him concernedly. "What's wrong, you're acting weird." Gabriella observed.

"Uh, well," Troy rubbed the back of his neck, trying to figure out exactly where to start. "Well, you see, there's this girl..." he began awkwardly.

"Mmhm," Gabriella nodded understandingly. Many a time had Troy gone to Gabriella with girl problems for her to supply her much needed feminine perspective.

"And I really really like her," He admitted bashfully. "possibly, love." he held his breath. As long as Gabriella didn't know who he was talking about, it was easier pretending that he was describing some anonymous face. "

"And your dilemma is?" Gabriella asked.

One of the 'perks' of being Troy Bolton at East High was the multitude of girls who did everything short of begging to be Troy's girl. He rarely took them up on it but when he did, he would usually come running to Gabriella when a girlfriend became too much to handle and he needed to let them down easily. But coming to her for advice because he was attracted to her instead of vice versa was uncommon.

"I have no idea how to talk to her." Troy closed his eyes briefly and told her his most nerve racking worry. "And I'm just kind of scared," he paused, trying to find the best way to phrase it without giving too much of it away. "That things won't be the same if I do."

"Well if you are going to tell this girl that you love her then it would be good if things changed." She laughed lightly. "But if you're worried about her rejecting her, then don't. It's you we're talking about, not one girl on the face of this planet can say no to you," she joked, receiving a small smile from Troy's somber expression.

"If any girl could, it would be this one," Troy muttered under his breath but Gabriella still heard him.

"Who is this mystery girl anyway?" Gabriella asked curiously.

'Oh boy' Troy thought. "Um, she's.." His mouth went suddenly dry. His lips seemed to be having trouble forming comprehensible words. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes so he didn't have to see Gabriella's reaction. "You," he finally got out.

Troy kept his eyes shut but after 30 seconds of silence, he wasn't sure if she left. He opened his eyes to check but sure enough, Gabriella was still there. Her eyes were widened, staring at him in disbelief and her perfect pouty lips were formed in a small 'o'. And just like that, the atmosphere shifted. That simple little word seemed the hang above them unsurely. Even as they waited there without exchanging a word, they could both feel the dynamics of their relationship changing.

"Y-You probably hate me right now. Wouldn't any sane girl hate the crazy best friend guy who randomly told her he was in love with her?" Troy asked rhetorically, more speaking to himself then anybody her. "Hell I'd hate it too, if some crazy guy came up to me and told me he…well I'd probably hate him more then you. Cause wouldn't it be weird if some random guy told me he…and well I'm not a girl and…" Troy trailed off, chuckling weakly at his own lame attempt at a joke. But Gabriella still hadn't moved a muscle.

They stood in an awkward silence for about 2 more minutes before Troy gave up. "I'm going to…go. I'm really sorry Brie." He apologized, turning away from the door.

He hadn't even taken one step before Gabriella took a hold of his arm, with those familiar jolts running through his body, and turned him to face her. Before he knew what was going on, she cupped his face with her soft, delicate hands and planted a gentle kiss on his lips.

"Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?" Gabriella whispered, still holding his face inches away from her own.

"Once or twice," he returned with a crooked, adorable smile. He leaned forward and captured her lips in another kiss, a much deeper kiss then before. Gabriella wrapped her arms around his neck with one hand buried in his shaggy light brown locks while Troy wound his arms around her waist.

They finally broke apart from a lack of oxygen. Gabriella slid her arms from his neck, down his arms and held his hands while pressing her petite frame against his muscular build. She looked at him questioningly, "Did you seriously think I was going to reject you?" she asked with a slightly amused smile playing on her features.

"Kinda, sorta because you hadn't exactly giv-" Troy was silenced by another light peck on the lips.

"What did we say about you shutting up?" she asked softly, giggling.

"Well why shut up when your method is so much more effective?" Troy grinned, while she laughed more. They moved closer again before someone burst in.

"I'm so sor-" Sharpay began to apologize before she took note of their intimate pose and stopped short. "OH MY GOD!" she screamed. Both Troy and Gabriella covered their ears to protect themselves from permanent damage to their eardrums. "Finally!" she sighed dramatically.

"Finally?" Troy and Gabriella said surprised in unison while they were being dragged out by Sharpay. The second they were both in the backyard, Sharpay let go of them and ran over to all of their friends. Taylor came by and congratulated them first but she was soon followed by almost all the attendees.

Troy snuck a peek at Gabriella who was being smothered to death by Taylor and her mom and caught her eye. He winked at her and she giggled back.

Their relationship had changed, something that he feared before. But now, he couldn't be happier that it did.

_**The End**_

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**A/N: UGHH once again, I ruined the ending. I can never make it seem natural. Does it bother you? It bothers me…So anyway, that was me finally writing something and finishing it even if it was just a one-shot. If I have a ton of typos, I'm really sorry. I kinda did this as a rush job. As always, I will totally love you forever if you review because I'm assuming that if you are reading this that you have already read the story so screaming READ AND REVIEW seems a little redundant. Even if you wish it was physically possible to beat the shit out of a fanfic, let me know, just a little less graphically please.**

**Xoxo**

**Mini princess93**


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